Bill Clinton espouses global issues at Salesforce.com conference

Paul Krill |
Dec. 10, 2010

The former President made a plea to fight climate change, and reflected on how the Internet has grown and cell phones shrunk in size since his inauguration

SAN FRANCISCO, 9 DECEMBER 2010 - Former President Bill Clinton gave a standing room-only audience at Salesforce.com's technical conference a lesson in global and U.S. politics Wednesday evening, citing three "huge" problems facing the world: economic inequality, financial instability, and an unsustainable energy model.

Speaking at the Dreamforce 2010 conference in San Francisco, Clinton also reflected on topics such as Congress's 2008 bailout of banks, tax policy, and how much the Internet has grown and cell phones shrunk in size since he first took office in 1993. "We want a global economy, but half the world's people are still living on less than $2 a day," said the former President, who left office in January 2001. Also, many children never go to school, even though each year of school adds 10 percent to lifetime earning capacity in poor countries, Clinton said.

Clinton described the world as unstable but interconnected. "The very rapid movements we need of information and people and money let this financial crisis [happen]. It began in the U.S. and spread instantaneously across the globe." A terrorist, meanwhile, can train in Pakistan and then try to blow up a car in New York City. The recent WikiLeaks controversy, in which confidential government documents were leaked on the Internet, could hurt American efforts to gather intelligence, Clinton said, with sources afraid of being found out and possibly even killed as a result.

Citing a lack of sustainability caused by how the world produces and consumes energy, Clinton made a plea to fight climate change. "We have to find an economically viable way to deal with [climate change]." He griped that the recent national elections, which gave Republicans control of the U.S. House of Representatives, meant the election of an "enormous number of people who don't believe in climate change."

Clinton also stressed the need to unlock opportunities in technology and energy, and endorsed companies looking to the future. "The companies that stay in the tomorrow business will do great in the 21st century."

Defending the Obama administration's healthcare reform, Clinton said the U.S. is spending too much of its gross domestic product on healthcare in relation to other countries. The U.S. also lags behind other countries in areas such as student achievement, rail service, and use of electric cars.

Noting the controversial 2008 bank bailout, known as TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), Clinton said he would have voted for it because "we were facing a total collapse in credit." Those in the Tea Party movement hated TARP, Clinton said. &nbsp;But "everybody hated the bailout," he stressed. "President Bush hated it. The question is did you need to do it."

The Internet's phenomenal growth since Clinton's 1993 inauguration was also noted. "There were a grand total of 50 sites in the entire Internet. More than that have been added since I started talking [this evening]," he said. Cell phones at the time weighed 5 pounds, he recalled.